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Are Urinary PAHs Biomarkers of Controlled Exposure to Diesel Exhaust?
Citation:
Lu, S., J. Sobus, G. Sallsten, M. Albin, J. Pleil, A. Gudmundsson, M. Madden, B. Strandberg, A. Wierzbicka, AND S. Rappaport. Are Urinary PAHs Biomarkers of Controlled Exposure to Diesel Exhaust? BIOMARKERS. Taylor & Francis, Inc., Philadelphia, PA, 19(4):332-9, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
Urinary PAHs are biomarkers of exposure, which offer attractive alternatives to air monitoring for determining exposure-response relationships. Our purpose was to determine whether levels of urinary PAH significantly increased after controlled exposure to DE and, thus, whether urinary PAHs can be used as biomarkers of DE exposure.
Description:
Urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were evaluated as possible biomarkers of exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) in two controlled-chamber studies. We report levels of 14 PAHs from 28 subjects in urine that were collected before, immediately after and the morning after exposure. Using linear mixed-effects models, we tested for effects of DE exposure and several covariates (time, age, gender and urinary creatinine) on urinary PAH levels. DE exposures did not significantly alter urinary PAH levels. We conclude that urinary PAHs are not promising biomarkers of short-term exposures to DE in the range of 106-276 ug/m(3).